The NBA Draw is an annual procedure for choosing thirty clubs of the National basketball association of new basketball players who want to join the league. Usually these players are graduates of American colleges, but in recent years the number of players who entered the NBA from other countries or have just graduated from school. In 2006, the NBA took measures to reduce the number of uninhabited basketball players in the league, now the player at the end of the year in which the draft takes place at least 19 years and he must graduate from the school at least a year before. As a rule, young players go to college after school, study there for at least a year, after which they put up their candidates for the draft. The first exception to this rule was Brandon Jennings, who did not enter the college after school, but spent one season in the Italian professional club, after which the Miluoki Bax club selected in the 2009 draft.
The first draft was held in 1947, between the first and second season of the Basketball Association of America (BAA), which preceded the NBA. In 1949, in order to popularize basketball among fans, the association introduced a rule according to which the club could exchange its right to choose a player in the first round of the draft for the so -called territorial choice, which meant the possibility of signing a contract with any basketball player who is a college located within 50 miles From the stadium of the club. The possibility of territorial choice existed until 1960. When new teams joined the association, the so -called expansion draft occurs, in which the new club recruits players whose contracts were not protected from other clubs of the association.
Currently, the draft consists of two rounds, in each of which the clubs choose one player in the order determined by a special lottery conducted before the draft. With lottery, clubs have the worst results and did not get into the playoffs in the preceding draft of the season. This is done to enable weak clubs to intensify promising beginners and support the balance of forces in association. Initially, the right of the first choice of players was received by clubs that took the lowest places in their conferences, the first and second were determined by the throw of the coin. In 1985, the NBA changed the order of the players in the draft and introduced the lottery to exclude the repetition of the 1984 situation, when Houston Rockets accused that the team specially lost the matches in order to get a draft under the first number of Khakim of the Otzhavon. The club can exchange its right to choose a draft for another club, for example, in 1986, the NBA champion, the Boston Celtics club, chose the second in the draft, exchanging this right from Seattle Super Cooners.
Draft Lottery
The draft lottery is held a month before the draft itself. Based on its results, the order of selection of players by teams that did not make it to the playoffs is determined. There are 1000 combinations in the lottery. Until 2018, the worst team in the pre-draft season received 250 combinations, which is a 25% chance of getting the first pick, after which the number of combinations decreased among all 14 teams. Since the 2019 draft, the rules have changed, now the 3 worst teams from last season get the same number of combinations (140), and the 4th worst team – 125, 5th – 105, 6th – 90, 7th – 75, 8th 1st – 60, 9th – 45, 10th – 30, 11th – 20, 12th – 15, 13th – 10, 14th – 5. Also, the number of first numbers has been increased from three to four, which will be drawn in the lottery. If some teams showed the same result at the end of the NBA regular season, then they receive an equal number of combinations by adding the combinations from each team and dividing the resulting number by two. If the resulting number is not evenly divisible by the number of tied teams, then a lot is used.
Foreign players selected under 1st number
The first foreign player (meaning citizens of any country other than the United States) selected in the NBA draft with the first overall pick was Michael Thompson of the Bahamas in 1978, however, he spent most of his childhood in Florida and played for the University of Minnesota. The next foreign No. 1 was Nigerian Hakim Olajuwon in the 1984 draft. The following year, this result was repeated by Patrick Ewing from Jamaica. Both of the above players, like Thompson, played at American universities before the draft, and Ewing also played at Cambridge High School (Massachusetts). In the 1997 draft, Tim Duncan became the first, although whether he is a foreigner is a big question, since he was born in the Virgin Islands and, like all natives of this state, is a US citizen by birth. He also played for Wake Forest University. The following year, Nigerian Michael Olowokandi of Pacific University was selected as number one.
Thus, until 2002, only five foreign players were selected in the draft under the overall first number, while all of them played for American universities, and one of them was born in the USA. In 2002, Yao Ming of China became the first foreign player to be selected as No. 1 with no experience of playing for a North American university. His selection was not only a game-changer for the NBA, he also had a big impact in Yao’s homeland.[13] During his NBA career, Yao averaged 19.0 points, 9.2 rebounds and 1.89 blocks per game.
In 2005, the Milwaukee Bucks selected Australian Andrew Bogut, who previously played for the University of Utah. The following year, the Toronto Raptors drafted Italy’s Andrea Bargnani, who became the second foreign player with no college experience and the first European to be selected first overall. In 2013, the Cleveland Cavaliers drafted Anthony Bennett, who played for the UNLV, and became the first Canadian to be selected with the No. 1 pick. In the 2014 draft, the Cleveland Cavaliers again drafted a Canadian player with the first pick, shooting guard Andrew Wiggins. In the 2015 draft, the Minnesota Timberwolves selected U.S.-Dominican center Karl-Anthony Towns with the first pick. The following year, the Philadelphia 76ers drafted Australian forward Ben Simmons as the first pick. In the 2018 draft, the Phoenix Suns drafted Bahamas center DeAndre Ayton, who became the second Bahamian to be selected first overall after Michael Thompson.